“I wear white for all of my neurodivergent community! I have always struggled with my mental health to a pretty severe degree. Since the age of fourteen I've been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, rehabs, in patient treatment centers, you name it. The stigma of being diagnosed with "something being wrong with me" always got to my parents and family, so my dysfunctional behavior was always blamed on me being a troublemaker or a "troubled teen," and I wasn't ever able to understand why I suffered so much every day. As a young adult I was able to be properly diagnosed and it turns out I have seven mental health diagnoses. I didn't even know that was possible but learning about all of them and how they manifest in my behavior has been life changing to say the least. I am big advocate of de-stigmatizing mental health issues as something we should hide or be ashamed of, so I like to share all of my disorders: Bipolar II, BPD, OCD, GAD, MDD, CPTSD, & Polysubstance Use Disorder. I am proud of being neurodivergent because it has made me the resilient and self-aware human that I am today. I like to push forth the notion that as much as neurodivergent people may struggle to function in our societal structure, we still do. When we put in the extra effort it takes for us to do what neurotypical people do more naturally, we succeed and thrive with the special skills that our brain differences have gifted us. I use the word neurodivergent because we aren’t sick. The label “mental illness” forces us believe there is something wrong with us when there is just something beautifully different about us. Valuing and validating mental health for ANYONE is necessary for us to normalize cognitive differences within our humanity and use our struggles to our advantage.” @victoria13sg